There ARE grocery stores in Yellowstone. I am not talking about 7-11s. Real grocery stores. It's ok. Buy meat and such at gateway cities and replenish within the park. I've taken many road/camping trips and usually stop every 3 days or so. You don't want to hold a lot of perishables longer than that. Found that is you buy frozen and plan on eating it on day 2 or 3 it's defrosted and helps keep everything else cold.
About bear country....Keep the cooler and all food in the car including the clothes you cooked in. Don't want to have a visitor in the middle of the night.
30
joell
31
kahua
No, DON't keep food ( or cosmetics, or anything odiferous) in the car unless you want your car ripped open in the middle of the night by bears. There are bear boxes in which to store your food. Go to the National Parks websites to read about bear safety and bear=proofing your car.
32
niner
<blockquote>Quote
<hr> Lucky I have time to read this between hitching up the team to go into town. <hr></blockquote>
Wouldja get me some penny candy at the General Store, Pa? And don't forget the sacks of flour.
33
joell
#31....that's the California NPs. Yellowstone doesn't have the bear boxes.
Still remember the news coverage of the minivan slider going flying. Cool bear!
34
holger_danske
No bear boxes in Glacier either... at Yellowstone 5 yrs ago we had Grizzlies in the Bridge Bay campground on Memorial Day, so take the food storage warnings seriously.
lirio, I'm not making fun... but MT isn't as backwards as most people think. You will find a small IGA grocery store in almost every little town and all the larger towns will have the usual assortments of Safeway, Albertsons, Walmart, Costco... Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, Butte, and Kalispell are all cities with populations 30,000+ that you will likely pass through on this journey where you can do major shopping.
Restaurants in MT are horrible... usually of the "Casino/Grill" variety, but you will not have any trouble finding food.
Also, MT has no sales tax, so if there are any substantial purchases that can wait until Missoula, get off I-90 on the Reserve street exit and you will find tons of the mega-box store.
Someone mentioned roadside produce stands, but you won't find any of those until summer and the only ones I can think of will be primarily selling cherries in the Flathead Valley on your way up to Glacier.
Pro tip
Lonely Planet
trusted partner
trusted partner